The Angry Young Them | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 11 June 1965 | |||
Recorded | 1964–1965 | |||
Studio | Decca Studios, West Hampstead, North London, England | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 35:26 | |||
Label | Decca | |||
Producer |
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Them chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [4] |
Record Mirror | [5] |
Them | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 1965 | |||
Recorded | 1964–1965 | |||
Studio | Decca Studios, West Hampstead, North London, England | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 34:17 | |||
Label | Parrot | |||
Producer |
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Them American chronology | ||||
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The Angry Young Them is the first album by the Northern Irish rhythm and blues group Them, whose lead singer and songwriter was Van Morrison. The album was released in the UK in June 1965. In the U.S., the album was released as Them with partly different tracks.
As with several Decca releases of the period, the name of the group was conspicuously absent from the front cover. On the back of the LP they were introduced as The Angry Young Them with an essay on this theme declaring: "These five young rebels are outrageously true to themselves. Defiant! Angry! Sad! They are honest to the point of insult!"
Six of the songs on the album were Morrison originals, including the famous garage band anthem "Gloria". Another song on the album, "Mystic Eyes", was a spontaneous creation that came out of the band just "busking around" in Morrison's words and after seven minutes of instrumental playing he impulsively threw in the words of a song he had been working on. The lengthy versions of "Gloria" that the band performed at the Maritime and the ten-minute recording of "Mystic Eyes" have never surfaced. All that is left of the "Mystic Eyes" performance is the little over 21⁄2 minutes on the album that remained after splicing out from the beginning and ending. "You Just Can't Win" was a Bob Dylan inspired song about a gold digger, set in specific places in London such as Camden Town. "Little Girl" was about a boy's obsession with a fourteen-year-old school girl (an earlier take on Lord's Taverners charity album had been deleted when a four-letter word was heard in the fade out at the end). "If You And I Could Be As Two" starts with a spoken introduction by Morrison with an aggressive Irish accent. Three originals by Bert Berns were included and a cover of John Lee Hooker's "Don't Look Back" was considered by Morrison to be his finest vocal to date. [6]
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Sir George Ivan MorrisonOBE is a singer-songwriter and musician from Northern Ireland whose recording career spans seven decades.
Bertrand Russell Berns, also known as Bert Russell and (occasionally) Russell Byrd, was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s. His songwriting credits include "Twist and Shout", "Piece of My Heart", "Here Comes the Night", "Hang on Sloopy", "Cry to Me" and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love", and his productions include "Baby, Please Don't Go", "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Under the Boardwalk".
Astral Weeks is the second studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was recorded at Century Sound Studios in New York during September and October 1968, and released in November of the same year by Warner Bros. Records.
The Chiffons were an American girl group originating from the Bronx, a borough of New York City, in 1960.
Them were a Northern Irish rock band formed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in April 1964, most prominently known for their 1964 garage rock standard "Gloria" and launching Van Morrison's musical career. The original five-member band consisted of Morrison, Alan Henderson, Ronnie Milling, Billy Harrison, and Eric Wrixon.
"Brown Eyed Girl" is a song by Northern Irish singer and songwriter Van Morrison. Written by Morrison and recorded in March 1967 for Bang Records owner and producer Bert Berns, it was released as a single in June of the same year on the Bang label, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song spent a total of sixteen weeks on the chart. It featured the Sweet Inspirations singing back-up vocals and is considered to be Van Morrison's signature song.
Bang Masters is a compilation album by Van Morrison released by Columbia's Legacy Records imprint in 1991. The tracks were remixed from the original multi-tracks and were given a wider stereo spread with less compression. The alternate version of "Brown Eyed Girl" included on this album was according to Bill Flannagan take six out of the twenty-two takes before the final form released in 1967 on Blowin' Your Mind!.
"Here Comes the Night" is a 1964 song, written by Bert Berns. It became a hit for Northern Irish band Them, fronted by Van Morrison, in March 1965, charting at No. 2 in the UK and No. 24 in the US. Them's single is listed at either No. 33 or No. 36 in the Top 100 best-selling UK singles during the calendar year 1965, depending on source.
"Into the Mystic" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and featured on his 1970 album Moondance. It was also included on Morrison's 1974 live album, It's Too Late to Stop Now.
"Gloria" is a rock song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, and originally recorded by Morrison's band Them in 1964. It was released as the B-side of "Baby, Please Don't Go". The song became a garage rock staple and a part of many rock bands' repertoires.
Them Again is the second album by the Northern Irish band Them, fronted by lead singer and songwriter Van Morrison. The album was released by Decca Records in the UK on 21 January 1966, but it failed to chart. In the U.S., the album was released with somewhat different tracks in April 1966 and it peaked at number 138 on the Billboard chart.
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his Bringing It All Back Home album, released on March 22, 1965, by Columbia Records. The song was recorded on January 15, 1965, with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and William E. Lee's bass guitar the only instrumentation. The lyrics were heavily influenced by Symbolist poetry and bid farewell to the titular "Baby Blue". There has been much speculation about the real life identity of "Baby Blue", with possibilities including Joan Baez, David Blue, Paul Clayton, Dylan's folk music audience, and even Dylan himself.
"Baby, Please Don't Go" is a traditional blues song that was popularized by Delta blues musician Big Joe Williams in 1935. Many cover versions followed, leading to its description as "one of the most played, arranged, and rearranged pieces in blues history" by French music historian Gérard Herzhaft.
"Mystic Eyes" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison when he was leader of the band Them. It was the opening tune for the band's first album, The Angry Young Them that was released in June 1965. It was released as a single in the US in October 1965 and in the UK on 12 November 1965. It charted at No. 33 in the US but did not chart in the UK.
The Story of Them Featuring Van Morrison is a compilation album, that includes almost every song recorded by the Northern Irish band Them, during the two-year history of the band when it featured Van Morrison as the vocalist for the group.
The Most of the Animals is the title of a number of different compilation albums by the British blues rock group the Animals. Although track listing varies, all feature only songs from 1964 and 1965. The title is derived from the name of their then producer Mickie Most.
New York Sessions '67 is a two-disc retrospective album of recordings made by Van Morrison in 1967 for Bang Records that were later released in the 1990s. Other album releases with the same recordings have been called Payin' Dues and The Complete Bang Sessions. The first disc presents material already available on Blowin' Your Mind! and on the previous Bang compilation albums T.B. Sheets and Bang Masters. The second disc contains the notorious "Contractual Obligation" session – thirty-one improvised nonsense songs Morrison recorded in order to fulfill his contract with Bang Records. According to Erik Hage, the song "Thirty Two" "takes a swipe at Berns's...production style and 'Brown Eyed Girl': Morrison sings 'we'll get three guitars .. and we'll do the sha, sha-la-la bit.'" Tracks from this album would be officially released on the compilation album The Authorized Bang Collection.
Van Morrison: No Surrender is a biography of musician Van Morrison, written by Johnny Rogan. It was first published in 2005 by Secker & Warburg, and another edition was published by Vintage Books in 2006. Rogan interviewed musicians and friends of Morrison, and spent 20 years researching the book and four years writing it. The book is comprehensive, and goes into detail about multiple facets of Morrison's life. Rogan recounts Morrison's youth in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and how early experiences there informed his music. He discusses how Morrison joined various bands before experiencing success with Them. Morrison later signed a contract with Bert Berns and moved to New York, where he became quite popular after recording "Brown Eyed Girl" and albums Astral Weeks and Moondance. Rogan comments on Morrison's exploration of spirituality, and describes how these experiences influenced his musical work. The biography discusses Morrison's move to Britain and then Dublin, and his relationship with model Michelle Rocca.
Blowin' Your Mind! is the debut studio album by Northern Irish musician Van Morrison, released in 1967. It was recorded 28–29 March 1967 and contained his first solo pop hit "Brown Eyed Girl". It was included by Rolling Stone as one of the 40 Essential Albums of 1967.